Lawn Tractor vs Zero Turn Mower...

[Rick Denney]

A lawn tractor is a tractor, and will have features and options not available to a mower. If you will need to smooth gravel or push snow, you'll want something with a front-mounted blade. If you want to pick up dirt, get a front-mounted three-point hitch with hydraulics for a front-end loaded.

The rear of a tractor can be used to pulls stuff. As Joe hints, the zero-turn mower is a mower, not a tractor. It won't drag stuff that needs dragging.

But a zero-turn mower will work faster in tight quarters.

I have a Kubota lawn tractor with a 60" deck and a 20-HP diesel engine. It was not cheap and I paid the price of, say, a 1291 for it. But it's built like a tractor--it is essentially a bit transmission case with stuff bolted to it, instead of a gasoline engine and cheapie gear box bolted to a sheet-metal frame. It makes a difference.

I have found stumps and also large rocks with the tractor with no damage except to the blades and to my nerves.

But my tractor doesn't have a three-point hitch and I'm limited to a plain vertical blade. I have, however, used that blade to smooth and shape freshly laid gravel on my driveway--that's where the toughness of a real tractor comes into play.

My tractor will mow around the edge of a 40" circle. A zero-turn mower will, of course, turn on itself. If you have lots of trees and flower beds, it makes a difference. We do, but we also have enough need for dragging stuff and pushing stuff that we decided to go with the tractor.

Oh, and I also have a Cyclone Rake that attaches to a tractor for picking up leaves. That has made the impossible task of leaf removal merely distasteful. Instead of 5 days of hard labor, it's only 1 or 1-1/2. That type of implement needs a tractor--it's something you drag.

So, for just mowing, especially in complicated patterns, the zero-turn mower is hard to beat. But if you need to drag and push things, you'll need the tractor.

Rick "whose tractor is only a little larger than a big riding mower" Denney

[Mark]

... it also has that whatchacallit drive on the back (that can power attachments like post hole diggers, etc.)

A PTO (Power Take-Off).